This 27th issue of Lexikos starts the third cycle of our system of a team of rotat-ing editors that was put in place following the retirement of Dr Johan du Plessis in 2010. There was no change in the quality of or the regularity with which our journal was published during the first cycle with Prof. Elsabé Taljard as editor of Lexikos 21, Prof. Danie Prinsloo as editor of Lexikos 22, and Dr Johan du Plessis (who kindly deputized for Prof. Rufus Gouws) as editor of Lexikos 23. The second cycle with Prof. Gouws as editor of Lexikos 24, Prof. Taljard as editor of Lexikos 25, and Prof. Prinsloo as editor of Lexikos 26 proved that our new system for the editorship of Lexikos is indeed sustainable.

The African Association for Lexicography (AFRILEX) is grateful and particu-larly proud to have an internationally established and highly regarded journal like Lexikos as its mouthpiece. Since 2011, when, thanks to the initiative of the then AFRILEX president Prof. Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, Lexikos adopted the Gold Open Access publication model retrospectively to volume 1, the journal has also become the preferred publication for international scholars beyond the borders of Africa, as the tables of contents of the last few volumes clearly dem-onstrate. It is also heart-warming that the research of AFRILEX members con-tinue to make up a significant part of every volume of the journal. This con-firms the trust in and academic stature of Lexikos in metalexicography and related disciplines.

Lexikos is a journal for the lexicographic specialist and is published in the AFRILEX Series. "AFRILEX" is an acronym for "lexicography in and for Africa". From the sixth issue, Lexikos serves as the official mouthpiece of the African Association for Lexicography (AFRILEX), amongst other reasons because the Bureau of the WAT had the express aim of promoting the establishment of such a lexi-cographic association for Africa with the publication of the AFRILEX Series.

Approximately a decade ago, it was suggested that a new function should be added to the lexicographical function theory: the interpretive function1. However, hardly any research has been conducted into this function, and though it was only suggested that this new function was relevant to incorporate into lexicographical theory, some scholars have since then assumed that this function exists2, including the author of this contribution. In Agerbo (2016), I present arguments supporting the incorporation of the interpretive function into the function theory and suggest how non-linguistic signs can be treated in specific dictionary articles. However, in the current article, due to the results of recent research, I argue that the interpretive function should not be considered an individual main function. The interpretive function, contrary to some of its definitions, is not connected to acting and therefore the only difference between reception and interpretation is that they work with different types of sign. However, the type of sign is not relevant for a function, or rather, it should not be a criterion for distinguishing between functions. The lemma selection for the communicative, cognitive as well as the operative functions could and should include linguistic as well as non-linguistic signs. Thus, theoretically, there is no reason to identify a fourth dictionary function as suggested by Tarp (2008), and practically, the development of modern technologies has diminished the distance in the treatment of different types of sign, making it easier for lexicogra-phers to lemmatise non-linguistic signs. Concerning the point that non-linguistic signs are also worthy of lexicographical attention, my suggestion from 2016 still stands, the difference in this contribution being that the interpretive function is not considered an individual function.

The research problem addressed in this article deals with the isolated development of Afrikaans terminology in a multilingual dispensation. The research problem manifests itself in three ways: the need for such terminology; the sustainability thereof; and whether a single institution, such as Prolingua, could maintain such development. Prolingua, an association for English and Afrikaans language practitioners, was founded in 1950. At the time it was known as the Transvaal Association of Municipal Translators. As the name indicated, the members were mainly munici-pal officials. Municipal services included several services that, at the time needed bilingual terms for various areas in the workplace. The country's bilingual language policy then required terms to be translated and created for all municipal departments — suddenly there was a need for Afri-kaans terms. The aim of the newly established association was, among other things, to translate, create and standardise terminology and to discuss problems with translation. Later more attention was given to terminology-related problems and the association became more inclusive and inviting for language practitioners from other institutions to join its ranks. This article deals with the need for Afrikaans terminology and gives information on the history of Prolingua and its contribution to terminology development in Afrikaans, i.e. the Prolingua term list and other products and services. The contributions made by external collaborators regarding terminology development also receive attention. Prolingua's cooperation with other institutions is discussed. The article concludes with recommendations for a way forward.

Collocational studies have recently attracted a great deal of interest. To date, hardly any study has tackled Arab EFL learners' competency in the use of verb–adverb collocations. This study explores the way advanced Arab EFL learners handle verb–adverb collocations using two learner's dictionaries. The subjects (N = 82) were required to look up 22 verbs, 12 frequent and 10 infrequent, and guess three adverb collocates of each verb. The results showed that even advanced EFL learners had considerable difficulty in providing extra adverb collocates of both frequent and infrequent verbs. Dictionary use was effective; the subjects performed significantly better especially with infrequent verbs. Many reasons were posited for this finding, foremost of which included the subjects' deficiency in collocational skills and the lack of sufficient clues in the definitions to facili-tate dictionary users' correct use of collocations. Whereas knowledge of the meaning of the stimuli was found to be a significant contributing factor to the subjects' overall collocational competence, basic prior training in dictionary usage did not show any positive impact on their overall performance.

The Afrikaanse idiome-woordeboek is a prototype e-dictionary of Afrikaans fixed expres-sions developed with the intention to test the functionalities of the e-dictionary. This dictionary is based on the function theory of lexicography. The e-dictionary makes use of various technologies. When digital tools are developed it is important to consider the usability of the tool. Usability evaluation was done on the Afrikaanse idiome-woordeboek to determine with what success it can be used. Discount usability methods, viz. heuristic evaluation and usability testing were used. This article reports on the findings from the usability tests which are discussed under the categories of content, information architecture, navigation, access (searching and browsing), help, customisation and the use of innovative technologies to manage data in e-dictionaries for search and display. The usability evaluation showed that the users did not always use the e-dictionary as the designers intended. Various recommendations are made to the designers of the Afrikaanse idiome-woordeboek, as well as for the design of e-dictionaries in general. Recommendations appropriate to e-dictionaries in general are made regarding usability evaluation, information architecture, searching in e-dic-tionaries, the data that can be included in e-dictionaries and training of users of e-dictionaries.

In linguistics, more specifically in the field of lexical semantics, a lot of attention has been given to polysemy and homonymy. The identification of and distinction between polysemy and homonymy should not be regarded as unproblematic. The lexicographic practice has traditional ways of presenting and treating polysemy and homonymy. This paper focuses on approaches in both linguistics and lexicography to polysemy and homonymy. Examples from the lexicographic practice are given. It is then shown that that the traditional lexicographic presentation and treatment of homonymy and polysemy in dictionaries with a text reception function, does not really assist the users adequately in their search to find the appropriate meaning of an unfamiliar linguistic expression. It is shown that different dictionaries often have the same lemma selection but not the same selection of polysemes. It is important that a dictionary should correctly coordinate a meaning and a specific linguistic expression. Consequently, a new approach is suggested for the presentation and treatment of homonymy and polysemy. Negotiating criticism expressed in both linguistics and lexicography, it is proposed that the lexicographic practice, in the case of dictionaries for text reception, should abolish the traditional distinction between homonyms as well as the presentation of the different senses of a polysemous word in a single article. Each meaning, whether the only meaning of a lexical item or one of any number of different senses, should be the only item giving the meaning in an article.

The latest research conducted by De Jong (2014) indicated that only a few European academic dictionaries, among over one hundred and fifty, use pictorial illustrations. On the other hand, it has been mentioned several times in the literature (related to both printed and electronic reference works) that visual content makes a general dictionary more attractive for the user. Therefore a new methodology, enhancing graphical strategy in lexicography, would be proposed. Firstly, a thematic division of meanings will be applied to the authentic multimodal explanations taken from two general dictionaries (verbal definition and graphical facility). As a result, commonly illustrated thematic fields will be shown along with the ones used by lexicographers in a restrained way, as well as the fields left without illustrations for some reasons. The exemplary meanings from these latest, "orphan" groups will be confronted with the query results from the authentic multimodal corpora. Such a procedure will give us some more detailed information about the obstacles connected with illustrating this particular set of senses (for example multimodal denotation and connotation problems).

The central research question that is addressed in this article is: How can ZulMorph, a finite state morphological analyser for Zulu, be employed to add value to Zulu lexical semantics with specific reference to Zulu verbs? The verb is the most complex word category in Zulu. Due to the agglutinative nature of Zulu morphology, limited information can be computationally extracted from running Zulu text without the support of sufficiently reliable computational mor-phological analysis by means of which the essential meanings of, amongst others, verbs can be exposed. In this article we describe a corpus-based approach to adding the English meaning to Zulu extended verb roots, thereby enhancing ZulMorph as a lexical knowledge base.

This article discusses the use of a bilingualized dictionary, namely Oxford Advanced Learner's English–Chinese Dictionary 8 (OALECD8), by advanced Hong Kong Cantonese ESL learn-ers in the determination of noun countability and associated article use. A homogenous group of 30 English majors in a local university participated in the study, which consisted of a noun countabil-ity and article selection task without and with the use of the dictionary. The results show that although bilingualized dictionaries are useful in helping learners determine noun countability and associated article use, learners often misinterpret dictionary information and model on inappro-priate structures, resulting in article errors and/or wrong countability judgments. Chinese transla-tions are also sometimes sources of errors. The results of the study provide lexicographers with signposts to the selection of noun information to be included in a learner's dictionary. More explicit information about noun countability and related article use should be provided in a more user-friendly arrangement. ESL teachers are also advised to engage advanced learners in analyses uncovering the different syntactic requirements of equivalent vocabulary items in the target and source languages when using a bilingualized dictionary.

German Vocabulary in Romanian Plant Names. A Report of Romanian Lexicographic Practice.

This paper examines an important but insufficiently investigated phenomenon — lexical innovation as a result of plant naming and the expression of national customs and traditions — by showing various linguistic influences in common plant names. E. Coşeriu considers this phenomenon to be given insufficient importance by linguists, given that fact that individual speakers became creators of language/poetry whenever they named a plant. I am of the opinion that a botanical lexicon of a particular region, once known, is not only a thesaurus, but can also be regarded as a document of a resident population or place in the past. First and foremost, botanical folk terminology has a practical value in that it identifies, distinguishes and categorizes members of the plant kingdom within a given natural realm. It, however, also has great theoretical significance for linguists, both with regard to the etymons from which they are derived, and to the metaphorical meanings that the phytonyms usually have. The article focuses on a selected area of Romanian specialized lexicography and offers an insight into the most recent lexicographic recording of Romanian plant names. Since, however, the German vocabulary in the commonly used plant names has been rather marginalized in the Romanian specialized literature, and since its characteristics have only been recorded and described loosely, the explanations are based solely on borrowed and/or adapted Romanian plant names of German origin. Other extraneous correspondences, mix-ups, erroneous assignments, other plant species or formations with the terms German/nemţesc (‘deutsch’) or Transylvanian-Saxon/săsesc (‘sächsisch’) etc., were not considered here. In my paper this rich inventory of plant names will be presented and exemplified using the German vocabulary listed here.

This paper aims to explore the potential usefulness of two techniques that visualise collocational preference for the purpose of synonym discrimination. Given the fact that collocation is one of the most important markers of meaning difference, it is used as the criterion for distin-guishing between near-synonyms. Collocational preferences for a set of near-synonyms (artificial, fake, false, and synthetic) were visualised using two techniques: correspondence analysis plot and collocational network. The collocations were retrieved from BNC corpus by using a distributional method. An advantage of the graphs is that they allow lexicographers to spot similarities and dif-ferences in collocational preference of several words in a single diagram. Such visualisations may be used as an alternative way to a tabular form of data presentation to avoid information overload which arises when lexicographers prepare synonym essays for productively-oriented dictionaries. The visualisations can be used as a starting point for exploring semantic differences between semantically similar words.

The term intellectualization was famously used in the Prague School to describe a process that a language undergoes in its development and refinement. In our South African context intellectualization entails a carefully planned process of hastening the cultivation and growth of indigenous official African languages so that they effectively function in all higher domains as languages of teaching and learning, research, science and technology. This article critically exam-ines the terminology development process that is being driven at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (henceforth UKZN) as one of the key agents of language intellectualization. The article critically evaluates the UKZN terminology development model that is used to harvest, consult and authenti-cate isiZulu terminology for Administration, Architecture, Anatomy, Computer Science, Environ-mental Science, Law, Physics, Psychology, and Nursing disciplines. Outflow platforms for the ter-minology in this development model are loosely listed as the 'database' and the 'development platform' but there is no clear end-user platform for students and lecturers, who seem to be the main end-user-targets of the whole terminology development initiative. The article will propose an improved model to cater for AnyTime Access, which is convenient for student needs between lec-tures, and improve the harvesting mechanism in the existing model.

This study examined the teachability of collocations through cultivating EFL learners' collocation dictionary skills. Fifty-nine EFL college students participated in the study, and they received two 75-minute instructions between pre- and post-tests: one on the definition of colloca-tion and its importance, and the other on the skill of looking up collocational information in the Naver Dictionary — an English–Korean online dictionary. During the second instruction, the stu-dents were trained to consult the dictionary for collocation production in the order of node word selection, word sense distinction, collocate type location, and feasible collocate identification. A comparison of collocation production test scores through a paired-samples t-test indicated that teaching collocation dictionary skills substantially improves learners' ability to produce natural collocations regardless of proficiency differences. In addition, the survey data collected at the end of the semester suggested that the participants perceive the instruction as necessary and helpful in gaining collocational competence and that their dictionary consultation behaviors have changed after receiving the instruction. Equipping EFL learners with collocation dictionary skills was also found to help them raise a sense of learner autonomy.

This article investigates electronic dictionaries under the framework of Systemic-Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) and argues for improving their exemplifica-tion multimodally. Multimodal devices, if well coordinated, can help optimize e-dictionary exam-ples in informativity, diversity, dynamicity and interactivity. The term multimodal exemplification is tentatively proposed under the umbrella of multimodal lexicography (Lew 2010), and defined as the selection and presentation of examples with multimodal devices for achieving greater effec-tiveness in exemplifying than language does alone, especially in an e-dictionary. Evidence shows that multimodal exemplification can expand the three metafunctional meanings of the e-dictionary discourse: ideational, interpersonal and textual. Ideational meaning can be enriched by not only multimodal examples per se but also cross-modal example – definition ties, and hyperlinks facilitate meaning flow in the semantic network. Interpersonal meaning can be expanded by user participa-tion and design options, including those for page layout (spatial mode) and example genre style (verbal mode). Textual meaning can be reinforced by information value, composition, salience and framing. This article makes a first attempt to explore the intermodal relationship between a defini-tion and the examples under the same sense, and to present a diagram illustrating a typical design of visual space in e-dictionaries. By exploring the special features of multimodal example texts, it may deepen our understanding of the emerging multimodal lexicography and complement multi-modal discourse studies from a lexicographical perspective.

This article reports on an online cultural dictionary for learners of English as an Addi-tional Language (EAL) in Australia. Potential users studying English for academic purposes in an Australian university pre-entry program informed each stage of the dictionary's creation. Consid-eration was given to the need for such a dictionary; terms to be included; information necessary for each entry (including audio and visual material); use of a limited defining vocabulary; example sentences; notes on each term's usage; and evaluation of user feedback once the dictionary had been launched online. Survey data indicate that users particularly value the dictionary's ease of use, example sentences, and specifically Australian content (including pronunciation given in an Australian accent). It is suggested that more entries be added, and that cultural dictionaries be created for other varieties of English, as well as for other languages.

This paper interrogates students' use of dictionaries for examination purposes at Rhodes University in South Africa. The practice, which is provided for by the university's language policy, is widely seen as a linguistic intervention particularly aimed at assisting English additional language students, the majority of whom speak African languages, with purely linguistic informa-tion. Such a view is misconceived as it ignores the fact that the practice predates the present insti-tutional language policy which was adopted in 2006. Although it was difficult to establish the real motivation prior to the language policy, this study indicates that both English mother-tongue and English additional language students use the dictionary in examinations for assistance that may be considered to be broadly pedagogic rather than purely linguistic. This then invites academics to reconsider the manner in which they teach and assess, cognisant of the pedagogic value of the dic-tionary which transcends linguistic assistance.

The present article is a plea for mother tongue education dictionary projects in Gabonese lexicography. The latter has been in a fast-developing process for the past twenty years and has experienced quite an important crop of dictionary products in such a short time. However, the production of dictionaries for mother tongue education, especially for Gabonese native lan-guages, has been totally neglected. Only a very limited number of projects, which have ever since remained at the level of studies, do exist. This article provides a conceptual plan for mother tongue education dictionary production in Gabonese native languages. It successively suggests an organi-sation plan and a dictionary conceptualisation plan.

This article introduces a prototype of a writing (and learning) assistant for verbal relative clauses of the African language Sepedi, accessible from within a dictionary or from a word processor. It is an example of how a user support tool for complicated grammatical structures in a scarcely resourced language can be compiled. We describe a dynamic light-weight tool aimed at combining user-knowledge with text production support, i.e., user-involved interactive text production of the complicated verbal relative in Sepedi. In this article, the focus is on access in a dictionary use situation. Although the tool is intended as a writing assistant to support users in text production; it also satisfies text reception and cognitive needs, but its focus is on solving text production issues related with the interaction between lexical items and complex grammatical structures in the African (Bantu) languages and for learning by users and/or training users in this interaction.